Bringing the FCC to the People and the People to the FCC

"Our media is precious. It’s how, outside of our strictly personal spheres, we speak to each other, inform each other, learn from each other, entertain each other, increasingly how we govern ourselves." With these words, Michael Copps opened a public hearing on media ownership rules. The hearing was not in Washington, DC, but Chicago, Illinois. Copps was not a local official, but a commissioner at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He was making sure people living in and around Chicago knew of some big decisions happening at the FCC – and he wanted to hear their concerns before he cast his vote on the matter. Over a decade later, Copps’s efforts in Chicago and around the country – to bring the FCC to the people and the people to the FCC – still resonate. As a commissioner in the minority during the George W. Bush presidency, Commissioner Copps was remarkably effective in leading a progressive policy program at the FCC – one that connected with activist groups across the country and helped galvanize a larger media reform movement that remains active today. While Copps’s interventions didn’t always lead to immediate victories, they challenged the balance of power in FCC policymaking by reshaping the debate and facilitating public participation. The legacies of his FCC tenure included raising awareness about media ownership concentration, the crisis of public interest journalism, and the importance of net neutrality, as well as providing a blueprint for public engagement across a wide range of media policy issues.

[Victor Pickard is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. Pawel Popiel is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.]